Feiden and Vetsmon were quick to ascend the hill. Knights had it easy like that with their ridiculous strength.

And Vetsmon carried Umara so she didn’t get left behind. So before long, we had all regrouped and prepared.

*BOOM*

The explosions coming from my guns echoed across the landscape. I was shooting as fast as I could, but although most of the beasts were weak, there were plenty of them.

And after my squad assembled around me, I paused and took out a cigar, speaking while lighting it.

“Vetsmon, Feiden. You two will take point in front of us. Feiden, support Vetsmon. Tana, you’re going to support them both. Take care of anything they can’t.”

“Understood.”

They all nodded and moved forward.

There was a good amount of space on top of this hill, so they wouldn’t have to fight on sloped terrain.

But all that space left room for beasts to fill. If we weren’t careful, we would get surrounded.

Well, not like we hadn’t faced these scenarios before with the Puppet Master. There were very few times that any of the teams I worked with ever failed, no matter the situation.

More often than not, I took command. As the observation specialist, I tended to have a better grasp on the overall situation. Of course, finding people who would trust me in the first place was more of a concern.

Thankfully, Vetsmon and Feiden took to my orders easily despite this being the first real time we had ever worked together.

Or perhaps it was just how irritated I sounded. Right now, I wasn’t in the position where I would take no for an answer.

After the knights moved up, I looked toward my trusty warlock.

“Umara, you’re responsible for crowd control. Don’t let our vanguard get surrounded.”

“Roger.”

She nodded and moved up, beginning to cast spells.

As for myself, well, my job didn’t need to be stated.

Climbing on top of the crawler, I got a nice view of everyone’s backs as well as the slope down the hill.

A rough estimation yielded a hundred or two beasts. And they weren’t all coming in one large group. They were scattered and had no sense of unity, attacking in small waves.

By the time I was ready, Vetsmon had already made first contact. He greeted the first beast with the tip of his spear, outright skewering it and throwing it away, almost slicing it in half from that action alone.

And Feiden followed up by simply slashing a beast across the face when it lunged at him, killing it instantly.

That’s when I suddenly remembered.

Vetsmon and Feiden were Authority 5.

Only 6 people in the Elites were Authority 5, and they were two of them. The rest were Authority 4, with myself occupying the bottommost rung.

So those two had no issue dealing with beasts under their level. They could even fight Authority 5’s head on, those behemoths I had seen during the siege being some of them.

So while an entire army of beasts could overwhelm a single person, that didn’t mean the person would fall. It simply meant they would take a bit more time to clear them out.

I understood quickly that Vetsmon and Feiden didn’t need much help. Plus, they had the support of Tana and Umara who would only make it easier for them to kill faster.

And that wasn’t to mention me, their overwatch who would pick off a few to keep their backs safe.

The only issue was, beasts only continued to come.

In the distance, I could see faint dots heading toward us. They were still scattered, but there were a lot of them. At least another few hundred by my count.

I felt a headache come on even as my cigar worked to alleviate my wounds.

If that asshole had only listened…

Now I was stuck cleaning up the mess. Taking aim, I decided I could work on my marksmanship here, picking off distant targets.

My bullets sailed over the heads of my squad, some bullets missing, others finding their mark.

Over time, as I communed with more weapons, I received the experiences of more people. Sometimes during my training, I would take a dive into the dimensions of my Authorities and sift around for more weapons to benefit from.

Of course, cursory communions didn’t garner that much. I found that the more I used a weapon, the more I would deepen the connection and the more experience I would receive.

And so far, I had used this Remington-Lee scoped rifle quite a bit. My connection with it was deeper than any other gun I had and the experiences I received from it were invaluable.

I wasn’t a marksman before coming to this world. Sure, I had some experience shooting guns, but nothing that would make me extraordinary. My aim was decent. That was all I knew.

But the experiences from this rifle made me into a proper marksman, someone who could utilize his weapon with adept familiarity.

That made this weapon's effective range of 300 meters truly effective in my hands. There was little I would miss unless the target was moving sporadically or was smaller than normal.

But I still had much to learn. I wasn’t an expert yet, and since guns were my thing, I needed to get very good at them. That included these older variants, even though they may not be as precise or easy to use as the modern ones.

And thankfully, I improved as I continued to practice, especially since my mind was improving as my Spark grew more powerful.

With a sharper mind, I indirectly strengthened my senses and dexterity. Being able to think faster was especially helpful, my reaction times shortening considerably and my ability to make judgments jumping a magnitude.

This was all to say that, even right now with only decent marksmanship, I was a damn good shot.

*BOOM*

Another bullet sailed beside Vetsmon’s body, instantly killing an incoming beast about 120 meters away.

About two hours had passed, and right now, I was wholly concentrated.

Those two hours passed relatively easily. The beasts were constant, but they were never overwhelming. Our group worked well, supporting each other and efficiently killing monsters because of it.

I was able to thin out some groups before they even stepped foot onto the hill, so by the time they arrived, they had no choice but to get caught in some of Umara’s traps and finished off by Vetsmon, Feiden, and Tana one by one.

Feiden killed the most by far, while Vetsmon was a close second. And Tana, although she didn’t kill a lot, did her job very well.

She was responsible for watching the surroundings of her allies, not simply finding as many enemies to kill as she could. Her job, like Vetsmon’s, was protection.

She made sure that Feiden could properly support Vetsmon who was acting as the tank and prevented any beasts from pressuring Umara. So she was constantly moving, providing her extra power where needed to keep the battle favorable.

I was beginning to see why she was in the middle ranks. She was fast, meaning she was a great scout. So she didn’t kill a lot, but she was still vitally important to make sure things didn’t go wrong.

After all, if Umara was suddenly pressured, and her auxiliary support for Vetsmon disappeared, then he would get overwhelmed and Feiden would be taxed trying to help. It would lead to a catastrophic breakdown in formation which would only spiral into dire consequences.

So even without me here, Tana was enough to balance the battle. They didn’t need me at all.

But I was here, and the role I played could be described as such.

Pure firepower.

My job was to deal as much damage as possible without getting in the way. In fact, I didn’t even need to observe much. That was technically Tana’s job. And commanding the team could also technically be left to Vetsmon.

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I was simply sheer killing power added on top of the team’s skillset. I knew that well and wasn’t under the delusion that I could do any more than that.

So I wanted to get good at my job, because although I was technically only extra power, I could also dictate the flow of a battle. I could make victories absolute and turn losses into wins. I could save lives and dampen casualties.

So I wasn’t needed, but I was self aware enough to know that my power would be desired in any team and all battles.

And expectations would be placed upon me because of that, expectations that would bear the weight of not just victory, but the lives of those around me.

So lacking skill in the only job I had wasn’t allowed. I had to become a master at what I did as soon as I could do so.

I had to improve at every step, using the experiences I gained at every level of power to better myself.

*BOOM*

I fired, catching a glimpse of the dead beast on the other end before shifting my sights to another.

My hand chambered another round, the bolt sliding smoothly along its chamber and slotting in another bullet. My eye maintained visual through the scope the entire time, allowing me to quickly acquire my next target and fire again.

And as my concentration peaked, I stopped noticing how much time had passed. I simply continued to fire.

Until, at some point, there were no more enemies to kill.

Everything went silent all at once, my gun being the last thing to sound.

I lifted my head, looking at my squad ahead of me.

They looked rather tired, as was I, but the surrounding piles of corpses showed just how much fruit our effort bore.

Doing one last scan, I couldn’t spot any other beasts coming toward us. With that, I finally relaxed.

“We did it!”

Tana cheered, her armor coated in blood. In fact, everyone was except for Umara and I. Killing so many beasts was bound to paint some things red.

The others smiled, looking between each other.

“How is everyone? Any wounds?”

“None here.”

“Nope.”

“I’m alright.”

After Vetsmon asked, everyone shook their heads.

I was the only one not to though.

Having been reminded and with my tunnel vision fading, All the pain of my wounds set in again.

They weren’t bad, just a bunch of shallow stab wounds and some lacerations. My cigar and the healing had stopped all the bleeding and would ensure I wasn’t in any real danger.

But it still hurt like hell, and I had been laying on top of the Crawler for hours. Combined with the exhausting target practice, I didn’t feel like I could move.

I groaned.

“I could actually use some help…”

“Oh, right! John’s hurt!”

“What?”

With Tana’s shout, everyone came rushing over. Vetsmon directly jumped up onto the Crawler and checked me out.

I waved when he landed next to me.

“I’m fine, just some wounds from that wolf beast earlier. I got poked.”

“Your clothes are bloody. Wait, you’ve had these for that long?”

“Well, not like I was going to sew them up on the spot. I took care of what I needed to. Here, just get me down.”

I put my hand out, prompting Vetsmon to take it and help me up.

He helped me down the Crawler and sat me down inside of it. Shining a light on my front side revealed my nice white shirt entirely red with blood, along with my pants despite it being a bit less obvious.

It wasn’t the first time I had gone so long without treatment, but unfortunately it only got more painful the more time passed without it getting at least cleaned and patched.

It felt like my entire body was sore, every movement causing shooting pains to hit my limbs.

I had basically caught a porcupine with how many sharp spines and claws that wolf had. It was only natural I was injured.

What I was more pissed about was how Sir Hemet still had yet to return.

“Where the hell is our lovely commanding officer?”

“I have no clue. He ran off and has yet to show up. Hopefully he’s back before the sun sets.”

“He better be. Shit, I need to get sewn up.”

I cursed while stripping my coat and shirt.

Looking at my bare chest revealed several wounds across my torso, some of them long slices, and others being slender punctures.

They had all clotted, and my cigar alleviated some pain, but not all of it.

I let out a plume of smoke while looking up, glancing at Umara who was cringing while looking closer.

She saw my gaze and asked.

“Are you really okay? Do you need anything from the medkit?”

“I’m fine. I just need a doctor. Hey, why don’t we all eat since we’re stuck waiting? Feiden, you mind pulling out the rations?”

“Sure.”

Feiden’s face brightened at the mention of food, gladly going to fetch a bag of supplies.

We all pulled out some rations and started chowing. After many hours of fighting, we were all hungry.

However, I also used this opportunity. Nudging Feiden with my elbow and nodding toward Vetsmon, I asked.

“Do you guys mind watching for Sir Hemet on top of the Crawler? I was thinking about laying down in here.”

“Oh, sure thing.”

“Tana, could you go with them?”

“Hm?”

Tana lifted her head in confusion, her mouth full of food.

That’s when I saw the two men go into thought. Vetsmon was the first to smile widely as he looked between me and the only person I wasn’t sending out.

Feiden quickly understood as well, though he seemed more surprised than anything. As for Tana, well, it seemed she was as dense as she was innocent.

Vetsmon grabbed Tana, pulling her.

“Let’s go, Tana.”

“Huh? We all need to watch?”

“Yes. All three of us can keep track of every angle if we sit in a circle.”

“...But why?”

“Just go.”

Vetsmon no longer asked as he dragged Tana out.

Then, the Crawler was left empty, light shining through the windows.

Stuffing the last of my food in my mouth, I suddenly turned and laid down.

My head landed on Umara’s lap. I looked up, seeing her looking down at me with an embarrassed face.

“Could you be more obvious?”

“Hey now, I wasn’t lying. I really do want to lay down. My body is killing me.”

“On my lap though?”

“Seeing a pretty girl like you helps alleviate my pain.”

“O-Oh…”

She smiled weirdly and looked up to hide her face from me.

How cute. It was fun seeing her all flustered, especially knowing how she would get me flustered with all those prying questions.

As she dodged my goofy grin though, I had a thought and adjusted my head a little.

Because she was almost always wearing some robes, her figure wasn’t all that obvious. I knew she definitely wasn’t as curvy as Rayla, but even just looking up at her from the vantage point of her lap, I had a good portion of my vision blocked by her chest.

It was just a cursory observation. I wasn’t so picky even if I had preferences, definitely not enough so to diminish my thoughts about her.

Still, I was a guy, and she seemed to be a sleeper. I couldn’t help but click my tongue with impression.

Plus, I couldn’t seem to get over her ashy gray hair. Like Rayla’s, it was an exotic color that mesmerized me. It was amazing to think it was completely natural. Not only that, but when I looked into her eyes, I found a deep purple that looked almost black. I hadn’t really paid attention before, but they were beautiful.

“You… look good too.”

Suddenly, I heard Umara mumble, her eyes darting over to my body beside her.

“You’re not a knight, but you’re strong.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“Is there a reason you work out? I know it's good for you, but usually only knights need to keep themselves in good shape. Everyone else really only needs to be able to run.”

“I think it’s a matter of principle for me.”

I answered while thinking back.

Ever since coming to this world, I definitely hadn’t worked out as much. The city and Magisterium definitely had gyms though, and there were even sports, though I didn’t know any of them and didn’t have the time to watch much.

So I wasn’t in the shape I was when I first came here. However, there was one thing that surprised me after a while.

Given several months, I should’ve lost a good amount of muscle mass and weight after not working out for a while, my stamina dropping into the gutter, my muscles becoming less cut, and my metabolism coming to a halt.

But very little of that stuff happened. I retained my shape rather well and my stamina no longer dropped to nothing within a week of no activity. I still ate a lot and felt just as strong as I was.

I chopped it down to simply a consequence of being in this world. Perhaps the magic of this world brought that kind of benefit inherently, or maybe it was a benefit of being a Magus. I didn’t know, but I wouldn't argue with the results.

Still, I did still do some workouts a few times a week. Hell, the Puppet Master’s scenarios doubled as fantastic cardio.

And I did so not to become stronger, but to simply not get weaker.

I would work out regardless of where I was in life. Keeping in shape was good for me both physically and mentally, as it was for everyone. I wouldn’t forsake that, especially when considering what I now did.

I explained this to Umara, who nodded while listening.

“I see. That’s good. Not that we have a choice sometimes.”

“True. Sometimes those scenarios are nothing but a running workout. I think the Puppet Master makes us do those on purpose.”

“Hehe, yea.”

“And you? What do you do to keep yourself fit? Or are you just naturally built this way?”

I poked her stomach, feeling what seemed to be some pretty tight abs.

She giggled and blocked me.

“I don’t do much, just some basic workouts. Even warlocks need to take care of themselves. I definitely don’t have abs like yours.”

Saying that I felt Umara’s hand move over and brush my belly with her fingers.

My brows raised as she continued to stare a bit, but then, she frowned as her finger graced the skin around one of my wounds.

“They look bad. You’ve got a lot of scars too. Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine. They’re just sore. I’ll be better once we finally get back to base.”

Saying that, I went quiet and shifted a bit, relaxing even further.

“Ah, how soothing.”

I smiled while nestling into Umara’s lap a bit more.

I heard her chuckle when I did, and then I felt some fingers run through my hair.

Is this girl actually petting me? I felt her fingers comb my hair and straighten it out, her fingernails scratching my scalp.

I felt tingly as she did that. Now I really was completely relaxed, almost enough to go to sleep.

This went on for a while as she got more comfortable with what she was doing. I felt like I never wanted it to end.

How unfortunate that I was hurt, otherwise I would be doing more than just laying on her lap. I felt a bit selfish being the only one getting treatment, but when I opened my eyes and looked at her, we both met with a smile. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

That’s when I heard the dreaded announcement.

“Sir Hemet is back!”